A handful of Russellville-area residents may get their break on the big screen next year after a University of Central Arkansas (UCA) professor recruited them as extras in a scene he shot Friday night for his second feature film.

Associate professor of digital filmmaking Joe Dull began shooting for his second film, “Sympathy Pains,” on July 1. The scene shot Friday night — estimated to take up about a minute of the film — involves locals dancing in the background to Russellville’s Jazz Reunion while showing humorous antics of the film’s main characters.

“The film is a story of Danny, who is the world’s worst comedian, who finds out his wife is pregnant, and he can’t stop his morning sickness,” Dull said. “The opening is them realizing they’re pregnant and it flashes back occasionally to the night of conception, so this scene is one event in that night.”

The dance scene, which was shot in the Sutherland Parish Hall of All Saints Episcopal Church, incorporated between 15 to 20 volunteer extras from the area. A film crew of about 20 UCA students is assisting in the film’s production, about 10 of whom helped shoot the scene Friday night.

Dull, whose first feature film “Table at Luigi’s” won a number of awards including the “Best in Show” award at Indie Fest in La Holla, Calif., and “Best Romance Film” at the Bare Bones Film Festival in Muskogee, Okla., said he started his second film in part to give students the opportunity to work on a major project.

“The idea is we did (a feature film) three years ago, and we’re doing one now and the goal is to give our students the opportunity to work on a feature film,” he said. “Feature films don’t come through Arkansas very often, and when they do, sometimes the students can get on them and sometimes they don’t, so this is to give any of the students who want that experience, and want it on their resume, to be able to do that.”

Betty LaGrone, executive director of the River Valley Arts Center, and John Gale, who was recently named president of the Arts Center’s board of directors and is also chair of UCA’s Mass Communication Department, coordinated to bring the extras together. Gale also secured the band and location for the shooting.

Both performed as extras — LaGrone as a dancer on the floor and Gale as a waiter who is the victim of one of Danny and his wife’s antics.

“We want to be sure to represent all the arts — the visual and performing arts — and this was a great opportunity for some of our Arts Center members to get involved in an activity that we don’t often have available,” LaGrone said. “It was just like being part of a scene, not knowing if you’re going to end up on the cutting room floor or not — but an enjoyable activity anyway.”

Gale said he suggested the location to Dull after Dull realized he didn’t have a good location to shoot the scene.

“I knew Russellville could do it,” he said. “Russellville’s just very supportive.”

Dull, who is continuing shooting through the weekend at The Looney Bin in Little Rock, commended everyone who’s volunteered time with the film, including Gale.

“I can’t thank (Gale) enough for helping us out with this. This was a huge undertaking that he took out for us,” Dull said.

“People are so amazingly generous with their time and with their things. Honestly, it’s overwhelming how helpful people just want to be, and I cannot thank the community enough. Up here and down in Conway, people just bend over backwards to help us. It’s amazing.”

Shooting for “Sympathy Pains” will continue through Aug. 12. The film is scheduled to premiere at UCA’s Reynold’s Performance Hall in September 2013.

To see more on “Sympathy Pains” and Dull’s other works, visit www.daringlydullproductions.com.